14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has made Office SharePoint Designer 2007 available as a free download as of April 2, 2009. The Redmond company explained that customer feedback catalyzed the move, rather than alternative reasons such as the global economic crisis. By making SharePoint Designer 2007 a free download, the software giant is attempting to mirror the perspective that customers had of the tool, with the vast majority regarding the solution as a natural extension of SharePoint, rather than a standalone product.
“Today we are excited to share with you some news about SharePoint Designer 2007. Starting now (April 2, 2009), SharePoint Designer 2007 will be available as a free download! We want more of you customizing SharePoint and feel that this [is] a good way to put the tool in the hands of more people,” revealed a member of the SharePoint Designer Team.
In the end, Microsoft indicated that it was aiming to offer customers the chance to enjoy extensive capabilities when it came down to customizing the SharePoint platform. Offering SharePoint Designer 2007 at no charge is an initiative set up to promote and facilitate the customization of SharePoint websites. At the same time, in parallel with making the Office SharePoint Designer free, Microsoft also informed that the company's Software Assurance customers would be able to take advantage of upgrade rights to Expression Web in accordance with their SA agreement.
“Users can take advantage of Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to create and deploy interactive solutions on the SharePoint platform, without having to write code,” explained Microsoft’s Will Craddock. Office SharePoint Designer 2007 can also be used to “automate business processes; create reporting and tracking applications; get started fast with pre-built Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Application Templates; and extend your solutions by building advanced interactive Microsoft ASP.NET pages.”
Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is available for download here.